Apprentice Program - Week of July 1st, 2024 (WK27)

DIA Design Guild Staff -

What’s on Julia’s mind these days?

I’ve been thinking a lot about questions. Questions are not just for interviews, but for life as well. While I do think about the meaning of life a lot, that is not the type of life questions I am talking about right now. Questions more along the lines of what to do next after a goal is reached? What is the next goal? What are the steps to get there? Have I outlined all the steps? How do we think about success? Why do we think one specific thing means success and something else doesn't? Meta cognition questions – thinking about your thoughts. That’s what I have been thinking about lately. 

“The challenge is really coming up with good questions.” 
– Guido W. Imbens, Nobel Prize Laureate for Economic Sciences

A small reminder that DIA Design Guild is a non-profit entirely run by volunteers. Thank you all for being a part of this community!

#1: Apprentice Program Specific News

Next week we are launching a free UX Curriculum. It’s open source and a prototype. This has been a year-long endeavor. Our ultimate goal is to be the Khan Academy of UX. Please reach out to Julia if you would like to go through the beta version of the UX curriculum. This has been written from scratch from years of experience. None of the content is AI generated. :)  

2024 cohort 

How is it going? Reply and let us know!

Continuing apprentices

More than half of the apprentices every year continue with DIA. Some of you are leading projects with our partner organizations (e.g. World IA Association, IAC, and EuroIA). Others are getting involved with client projects. 

Don't be a stranger; there are plenty of ways to get involved. If you want to work on something with other apprentices, don't be afraid to share via Discord or email Julia to include something in the next biweekly update.

#2: Apprentice Wins and Celebrations 

Share: Have any good news, life lessons, or need project help? Reply and let us know. We can share it in the next biweekly update.

#3: Events

3A - DIA Read Aloud Book Club

Book club is on hiatus for the summer. We’ll finish the book Storytelling for You starting in September. 

3B - Game Club

The DIA Game Club is taking a break for the summer. We intend to use this time to rest and catch up on any jam entries we didn’t finish yet. Things are rough right now but we hope everyone is hanging on out there. 

In the meantime, come hang out with us! 

https://discord.gg/yp7UeWzVwf 

3C - Monthly AMA and a Monthly Webinar

AMA About Content Design (Google Meet) -
Friday, July 12th, 12 pm Pacific / 3 pm Eastern

Many thanks to our mentor Daria for leading this initiative. With over six years in UX strategy, mixed-method research, and design, Daria dedicated her career to enhancing user experience in B2B2C startups and large enterprises. She blends creativity and analytical problem-solving to serve the growth of companies since her career in restaurant management. Daria led UX when SparkMeter made the top energy innovative companies, increased user engagement for Indeed and Canyon Ranch, sustained Cardlytics’s Dosh and Venmo acquisition, and reduced operational costs for Cisco and Connected Dealers. When Daria is not doing UX, you can find her hiking, painting watercolor, or playing Darbuka.

Webinar Topic: Designing Multimodal Experiences (Google Meet) - Friday, July 26th, 12 pm Pacific / 3 pm Eastern

Led by our very own mentor Courtney, she is a UX Designer seeking to create kinder and more connected products. She has designed for B2B, B2C, and non-profit spaces. Across these spaces, she’s found that the human-centered design process is what must hold at the center. 

3D - Monthly Office/Social Hour

Monthly Apprentice Social Hour (Google Meet) -
Friday, July 19th, 12 pm Pacific / 3 pm Eastern

#4: Project Opportunities

We might have two more projects soon. Keep an eye out!

May First Website Redesign - The team is a little heavy on the research side, so we’re looking for 1 - 2 design-focused volunteers to join the team. 

  • For details, email Grace grace@diadesign.io
  • Subject: May First Website Redesign
  • Timeline: Slow 

World IA Cafe Social Media – We're looking for volunteers to help World Information Architecture Cafe develop a library of video clips -- creating short highlight clips from past event recordings.

World IA Monthly Newsletter - Looking for one apprentice to do some content development for the newsletter.

💡
Note: Paid client projects help sustain our DIA Design Guild operations. If you’re interested in leading or contributing to any of these projects, please email Grace at grace@diadesign.io.

#5: Job Opportunities

We’re always on the lookout for relevant entry-level roles to share with our apprentices. They’re usually shared on Discord under Discussion > #jobsearch-opps. If you come across any, let us know! We'll be sure to share them here for everyone else.

#6: Volunteer

Need to find a project? Check out these volunteering resources and find your next gig! We’ll highlight a few organizations in every newsletter where you can look through and find something that interests you.

#7: Learning Resources

Did you know? Julia manages the Design Education Resources database. We’ve been managing this since 2022 and Julia keeps this updated. See the full list. 

#8: Feedback wanted

Open rates are great, click through rates are alright. But how helpful is this newsletter really? Share with us why yet another newsletter was a good idea. 

If you’re interested in past updates, you can login on the website and check them out. Login to comment or read past issues. Login is a magic link, no password needed!

Share newsletter feedback 

As always, we’re around to chat. DM us on Discord, reply to this email/post or schedule some time on our calendars: 

That's all for now!